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In Farmington, Michigan, in 1947, rarest marbles were the crystal-clear ones in various colors - we called them "peeries," and any large-size marbles were called "boulders." A peerie boulder was the most valued marble of all. You could win one by making a tough shot - say shooting between two marbles, spaced an inch apart, at a distance and hitting the target marble behind them. At recess, we'd try our skill at various such challenges which were set up on the ground, side-by-side, like the midway at a carnival.

I remember being very proud of my brother because he was the best marble player in our school. I remember they used to draw a circle (girls weren't allowed to play). There were certain marbles that were more valuable than others. There were also some big ones called Aggies, I think.

Wow, I spent so many recess and lunch periods playing marbles as a kid back in the 70's. It was THE schoolyard game. We played the "polish" version, though to us that was the only game we knew.

Imagine my dismay when I found out that marbles have now been banned from school yards around here as some teachers view it as "gambling;" how sad is it that kids will never know the rush of winning his opponents marbles or the disappointment of losing his.

This picture brought the memories flooding back since it was a common pastime when I was a kid. Every kid knew exactly what marbles were his and when we did not want to lose any, we would play for "funsies" which meant when the game was over, we each took all ours back. Playing for keeps was serious business and losing a favorite marble was a personal tragedy. Sometimes you could win that coveted one back in a future session. We also played what we called a "Polish" version of marbles (it was my yard and I'm Polish) wherein we had to shoot the marbles into a hole in the dirt with our fingers and the last one to get the last marble in would win the whole lot, a real bonanza. Those were great days.

I spent many hours playing marbles and riding my bike as a youngster. Didn't have to worry about some slug coming around trying to sell us dope and junk back then. Times were a lot more carefree for a kid.

Good marble players only bought marbles one time. You could tell a good shooter by the way he aimed and addressed the circle. In my neighborhood we had two or three that would need to keep a sock attached to their belt to hold the marbles that they knocked out of the circle.

In May 1940, Woodbine's future was bright; it was the centerpiece of Iowa's apple-growing business (then second in the nation), and was bisected by the nation's best-known transcontinental route (the Lincoln Highway, US 30). Six months later a severe storm known as the Armistice Day Blizzard devastated Iowa's orchards. Arriving in the warmth of fall, before tender new growth in the apple trees had a chance to "harden off," the blizzard blackened and killed all but the oldest trees. Highway 30 would bypass downtown Woodbine on the east, and Interstate 80 would bypass US 30 on the south, but the bricked-streets of the old Lincoln Highway remain preserved on County Highway L16 (and Lincoln Way Street) in Woodbine. Woodbine's annual Applefest survives.

Shorpy.com | History in HD is a vintage photo archive featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1960s. (Available as fine-art prints from the Shorpy Archive.) The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.